Reincarnated As Poseidon-Chapter 41: Ka’dryn

The sea churned like a beast disturbed.

Every creature in the water — from the smallest shardfish to the titanic dragons of the Mariana Ruins — felt it.

A heartbeat.

No... not a heartbeat.

A call.

The water pressure dropped violently, currents reversing in a panic. Whirlpools cracked open the ocean’s floor. Coral reefs shattered as an ancient tremor rose from the deepest part of Thalorenn’s trench.

Dominic stood alone.

Above, the skies had darkened. Clouds swirled into a vortex, and even Olympus turned its gaze downward.

Then, it came.

Ka’dryn.

---

It wasn’t a creature.

It was a continent of death.

A mass of writhing, armored flesh, the size of an island. Eyes like black suns opened across its body, blinking in unnatural rhythm. Tentacles surged out from beneath its belly, each one miles long, pulsing with venomous green veins.

Its maw opened slowly, and Dominic’s breath caught.

It wasn’t a mouth.

It was a gate.

A spiraling tunnel of teeth and void, through which the sea itself seemed to fall.

Ka’dryn screamed.

It wasn’t sound.

It was memory.

The drowning of civilisations. The forgotten screams of sailors. The fear of gods themselves.

Dominic dropped to a knee, blood leaking from his ears.

The Oracle of the Sea, still floating above, narrowed her eyes.

> "Ka’dryn is the Deep’s vengeance. A hunger Poseidon imprisoned. It has waited... long enough."

---

Cut to Olympus

Hades stood with his arms folded, watching the vision pool.

"He’s not ready," he said simply.

Athena stepped forward, fingers clenched around the edge of the stone table.

"He’ll never be ready if you keep whispering doubt."

Ares, pacing like a storm in a bottle, snarled. "If that thing wakes fully, it won’t just drown Thalorenn. It’ll sink us."

"And what would you have us do?" Artemis asked, calm but cold.

"Let him fight," Athena said. "Let him prove he isn’t just a copy of Poseidon... but something new."

---

Back to Thalorenn – Dominic’s Struggle

Dominic rose slowly. His muscles screamed. His veins glowed with divine light.

But he couldn’t stop shaking.

Ka’dryn towered above him — a horror that even the Hollow had feared. The Trident pulsed weakly in his grip, reacting like a frightened animal.

> "Come on..." he growled. "You’re not afraid, are you?"

The sea god’s weapon responded. A bolt of sapphire lightning cracked from its tip, striking Ka’dryn’s hide.

The beast didn’t flinch.

It just blinked — one massive eye rolling toward him — and charged.

A wall of flesh and fury surged forward, faster than anything its size should be capable of.

Dominic barely had time to dive aside.

The entire trench exploded behind him — coral forests torn apart, ancient statues reduced to dust. A wave blasted upward, reaching the surface and capsizing three ships from Naerida’s fleet miles away.

He slammed into a jagged rock, coughing blood into the water.

> "This isn’t a battle," he rasped. "It’s a damn apocalypse..."

---

A Vision – Within the Sea

Time stilled.

Dominic opened his eyes, but he wasn’t underwater.

He stood in a memory.

A temple. Half-crumbled. A marble altar. And there—Poseidon, seated on his throne, staring forward blankly.

Dominic approached.

"You ran from it, didn’t you?" he said aloud. "Ka’dryn. You locked it away. You didn’t kill it."

The vision of Poseidon stood, silent, and held out a palm.

Inside it... a single shard. Of power. Of memory.

> "I was too proud," the old god finally spoke. "Too drunk on dominion to admit I’d created a monster I couldn’t tame."

Dominic’s fists clenched.

"And now it falls on me."

The shard melted into Dominic’s chest.

Power surged.

Not Poseidon’s. Not entirely.

But something new.

---

Return to the Battle

The sea shimmered. Ka’dryn reared back, confused for a moment as the water around Dominic shifted.

The light returned — no longer pure blue, but streaked with black and silver.

His body healed.

His eyes opened — glowing with a dual flame.

He held the Trident differently now.

Like a spear of judgment, not a weapon of control.

Dominic whispered, "I’m not here to rule the sea..."

He launched forward, Trident glowing.

"...I’m here to end its monsters."

He slashed one of Ka’dryn’s eyes — the beast screamed, recoiling. Dominic darted beneath the mass, striking a second weak point — this time near a pulsing core of light under its hide.

Blood that looked like black oil burst into the ocean.

The creature thrashed violently, trying to crush him.

He dodged again — barely.

---

Cut to Naerida’s Fleet

The sky cracked with lightning as Ka’dryn’s massive body rose fully into view.

Naerida, aboard her ship, watched in awe.

"...By the drowned gods..."

Beside her, Maelora’s eyes narrowed. "He’s pushing it back."

"Not enough," the queen said. "We need to act now, or the ocean dies with him."

She raised her conch blade and screamed across the waves.

"To arms! For the sea!"

The ocean trembled.

Above and below, across coral mountains and sunken cities, the ripples of war surged outward from Thalorenn like blood in the water.

Ka’dryn loomed — a titanic nightmare thrashing against the seabed. Its form shimmered with malevolent energy, its shriek alone enough to rupture coral reefs and shatter sonar.

And still, Dominic fought.

---

Deep Below – Dominic’s Battlefield

Dominic’s body hung limp in Ka’dryn’s grasp. Tentacles the size of towers crushed around his ribs, his trident drifting a few meters away, buried in glowing sediment.

He coughed. Blood clouded the water.

But in that haze — in that terrible silence — he felt it again.

Not the call of Poseidon.

Not the rage of battle.

Something older.

Deeper.

A pulse.

No... a heartbeat.

Inside him.

One that did not belong to the sea god.

His fingers twitched. His pupils narrowed into slits. And with a sudden scream—half human, half something else—Dominic exploded with light.

The tendrils recoiled. Ka’dryn wailed.

From Dominic’s chest emerged the mark — an ancient sigil, glowing black and silver, not of Olympus, not of Atlantis.

It was the Mark of the Abyssal Flame.

---

Cut to Olympus

Zeus jolted upright. His goblet shattered.

"What did you just say!?" he barked.

Hermes trembled beside the mirror pool. "He’s... awakening something that shouldn’t exist, my lord."

Athena, arms crossed, didn’t look away.

"He’s pulling on powers even Poseidon feared," she said quietly.

"He will burn himself alive," Artemis muttered.

Ares smiled. "Let him. If it kills the beast."

But even they — gods of power and pride — felt unease.

---

Back in the Deep

Dominic’s scream echoed across the trench.

The water parted.

Ka’dryn reeled back — its flesh sizzling. Dominic’s body had become an ethereal blaze — hair flowing with shadowy flame, armor cracked to reveal a molten core of power beneath.

This wasn’t just Poseidon’s successor.

This was something else.

> "I won’t let you erase the sea," Dominic growled.

He raised both hands, drawing the trident to him as if gravity bent in his favour.

Lightning struck beneath the ocean.

> "I don’t care if I wasn’t born for this throne..."

> "I’ll earn it with every drop of blood."

He launched forward.

---

Ka’dryn vs Dominic – Second Clash

Ka’dryn’s tentacles shot out again — but Dominic was faster.

He weaved through them like a storm incarnate, each movement carving arcs of dark blue fire. His trident clashed against one of the beast’s horns — the shockwave collapsed a cave system half a mile away.

Ka’dryn opened its gaping maw again, trying to suck in the sea itself.

Dominic roared — and answered with a spear of abyssal light, stabbing directly into the void-throat.

It convulsed, a pained ripple shaking the entire seabed.

---

Cut to Naerida’s War Council – Atop the Waves

The queen watched from her command vessel, eyes wide.

"He’s doing it..."

"No," Maelora said beside her. "He’s becoming something the sea hasn’t seen since the first storms."

They looked toward the horizon — where other fleets were arriving.

Merfolk from the shattered kingdoms. Sea dragons from the Ruined East. Even the crimson sails of Siren ships, drawn by Lyrielle’s curiosity.

An uneasy truce had formed, if only for a moment.

And the ocean — ancient, wounded, furious — waited.

---

Cut to Lyrielle – Watching

Far from the trench, atop a high pillar of cursed obsidian, Lyrielle stood cloaked in foam and darkness.

The Choir was silent.

She watched as Dominic burned with power unnatural, carving through Ka’dryn’s hide.

Her eyes narrowed.

"So... you’re no longer just Poseidon’s shell," she whispered. "You’re becoming your own tide."

Behind her, the choir shifted uneasily.

"And if that tide breaks the world, I will either ride it... or drown it."

---

Final Scene – The Awakening

Dominic landed another blow — Ka’dryn howled, falling back. The Trident pulsed violently in his grip.

Then — everything went still.

The sea was... listening.

And from the depths — beneath Ka’dryn — the trench cracked open again.

Not from the beast. Not from Dominic.

But from something older.

A hand.

Not flesh.

Not bone.

Not shadow.

A hand of deep glass — reflective and endless — reached up from the abyss.

Ka’dryn twisted in panic, sensing the touch.

Dominic gasped.

"What... is that?"

A voice — soft as the ocean’s lullaby — filled the trench.

> "The Sea remembers more than kings and monsters..."

> "It remembers me."

Dominic’s body froze, every nerve screaming.

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